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As with many critics, I initially found "Vertigo" to be one of Alfred Hitchcock's less successful efforts. But as years have passed, I've become more beguiled by the twisting story of a detective who is hired to follow a woman with a seeming desire to commit suicide - and this description doesn't come close to revealing the complexity of the narrative. Although James Stewart is a great actor and acquits himself well, I find him a little too old for the part (although he was still a huge star in 1958); but Kim Novak, though never one of Hollywood's great actresses, is nevertheless perfect in her role.The Blu-ray contains a number of extras, including a somewhat bizarre commentary by director William Friedkin, who seems to like the movie but at the same time picks at small details and criticizes Hitchcock's style and methods of presentation. For a 58-year-old movie, the image looks great. Overall, I highly recommend this classic film.

This is an excellent film, one of my ten best ever made, and this Blue-ray version is a good restoration (to demonstrate that statement watch the accompanying documentary in Special Features). I hear, however, that an even better restoration on Blu-ray is in the offing in the future (it's presently in 4K format), especially with a stereo music soundtrack (Hitchcock chose the mono version), but until that comes along, this Blu-ray is definitive. I'll definitely be buying the newer one when it becomes available. My special thanks go to the restorers and their twenty-year service in the interests of providing us all with 'Vertigo', one of world cinema's greatest films, in its almost original release quality, this time in digital format. For international purchasers, the slick's promise of HD downloads don't work outside North America.

My review is focused on the Blu-ray + Digital HD Ultraviolet version (Universal 61131988) of this classic movie, with an aside for those who may never have seen the film or remember it only vaguely.

Since the dawn of VHS tapes "Vertigo" has been a mainstay of my home movie collection. At present I own three different discs of this movie. With this latest purchase I should be able to stop. If the visual reproduction gets any better, my pre-cataract condition would never allow me to appreciate it. (Can you buy cataract surgery at discount on Amazon? Jeff Bezos is probably at work on that right now: just drone in the eye-surgeons. I digress.)

This edition of "Vertigo" is based on the Harris-Katz restoration of the film earlier this century. When it was released in theaters, about 15 years after its return to the screen ca. 1984, the Robert Harris-James Katz version knocked my socks off. It was as though a milky veil had been pulled away from the screen and I was seeing the film as I had never seen it before. Apart from the fact that my home theater does not boast a forty-foot screen, that is much the same experience I have enjoyed watching this Blu-ray/HD version. Do you want crispness of image? With this edition you can see each separate diamond woven into some of James Stewart's neckties. You can also see an ever-so-thin red outline of the white, main title lettering.

Now, for the colors. In this edition they are absolutely stunning. I felt as though I could touch the red-brocaded walls in Ernie's Restaurant. Podesta Balducci's floral emporium has never looked richer. The blue sky of San Francisco behind the Brocklebank apartments is utterly pure. The yellow filter through which Hitch shot Scottie and Madeline's visit to the Mission Delores cemetery has never looked more mysterious. And Kim Novack's climactic entrance as Madeline in Judy Barton's apartment, bathed in ghostly green, is glorious. In case I haven't made myself clear: Technicolor is used dramatically in this movie as never before or after in Hitchcock's films (for that matter, in any other film I can think of). It doesn't make things "pretty." It helped Hitch tell the story.

Regarding the audio, I am unable to discern a qualitative difference between this and the immediately previous DVD edition I own. Evidently nothing more has been done to improve on the Harris–Katz audio restoration. As for extra features, there are repeats of those of earlier editions, with at least three new additions: "Partners in Crime: Hitchcock's collaborators" (namely, Saul Bass, Edith Head, Bernard Herrmann, and Alma Reville), excerpts from the Hitchcock/Truffaut interviews, and a voice-over commentary by William Friedkin.

As for the movie itself, there's little I can add that other reviewers haven't already said. This is not a movie you watch for the plot: while it incorporates twists, the plot itself is meshuga. Nor is this a movie that titillates with exploding cars every five minutes. To watch this movie is to be drawn into a dream: Hitchcock's dreamworld. Leading us into this dream are Stewart and Novack in what is arguably their two finest performances: everyday, decent people whose lives are haunted and finally overtaken by their fantasies, obsessions, and desperation to love and to be loved.

If you have never seen this movie, "Vertigo" is truly a must. If you have seen it but feel cheated that you haven't been able to SEE it in all its visual glory, this version is (at this writing) the twelve best bucks you'll spend.

A classic Hitchcock film with great peeks into the San Francisco splendor that once was. Unfortunately many of those beautiful places in San Francisco have been replaced with modern ugliness, such as Union Square. But the city hasn't changed many of those buildings like the apartment building and the Fairmont Hotel on Nob Hill or Old Fort Point under the Golden Gate Bridge. Mission Dolores can still be visited and the small cemetery is still the same. Mission San Juan Bautista can still be visited, although the tower never existed (but was added by Hollywood magic)

As a film this one is always a delight to watch. Not only for the clever story line (which has some flaws) but also for the wonderful clothing worn by both men and women and memories of a time when simple graces such as a gentleman buying a lady a corsage while shopping downtown.

Chilling and sexy and disturbing at the same time. Hitchcock cast Kim Novak almost under protest but this is, undoubtedly, a gripping and beautiful performance. She has said in interviews she understood Judy because of her experience in Hollywood, they want you and they want to change you. Stewart stands out in a performance where for once he isn't playing a local-yokel. He's quite insane and everyone around him, even Judy, knows it. But he still appears "normal." Novak has said that after their many emotional scenes together the two would often stand, embracing, for a couple of minutes in order to "come down" from the intense feelings they were experiencing. Two actors working together so intensely, guided by the passions of the greatest director of the last century have created something that stands the test of time. Hitchcock was guided by his disappointment in not being able to cast Vera Miles as Judy. His own obsession with the unattainable woman makes this his most personal and in many ways "least Hitchcock" of all his movies. It is a masterpiece.